The employer’s disciplinary power and proportion of penalties compared to the accusation

The Milan Court, Employment Section, with her sentence, rejected an appeal submitted by three employees of our Client, who had challenged some conservative disciplinary sanctions inflicted on them (specifically suspension from work and pay), considering them disproportionate since the employer (i) had tolerated their minor breaches for years and (ii) had given them a warning for identical errors. The Judge did not agree with the findings of the plaintiffs “since as admitted in the same appeal, the company in the face of the plaintiffs’ errors, evidently the result of a lack of effort in performing their work, had first punished their negligent conduct with a warning and only after repetition of the same error, inflicted the suspension of work and pay”. In the ruling the Judge also explained that the fact that the company had tolerated the plaintiffs’ errors “evidently to show faith in the workers for the future (…) did not exempt the plaintiffs from the obligation stated in article 2104 of the Italian Civil Code to correctly and diligently perform their jobs”.